Eight in 10 firms expect Covid-19 to change business models: survey

EIGHT in ten businesses in Asean expect the Covid-19 pandemic to change their business model or operations, according to a poll of 4,500 firms by enterprise application software firm SAP.

However, four in ten are still adopting a "wait and see" approach, even though only 1 per cent of all respondents expect "business-as-usual" in the long run.

In the survey, released on July 14, 63 per cent of respondents have already seen changes in customers' purchasing behaviour and motivations since the start of the year.

About a fifth of firms see a need to change their customer experience strategies -- including digital platforms, say -- while a similar proportion expect significant change to supply chain and operations.

Moves that respondents are taking include business transformation (21 per cent), enhancing customer engagement (15 per cent), making business processes more efficient (14 per cent), ensuring business continuity (12 per cent), and supply chain resilience and redefinition (9 per cent).

In Singapore, out of 1,051 respondents, 65 per cent had already taken steps to adapt their business strategy and offerings to the changes in market conditions.

Top interest areas for Singapore firms were business technology platforms (32 per cent), "intelligent enterprise" or using data in decision-making (13 per cent) and human resources of workforce management.